
Impressions from Stockholm
By WGM Alina l'Ami
10-9-8…3-2-1 – Gott Nytt Ar!!! – as the Swedish would say
at the beginning of a new year, in the universal hope to get it right this time.
Probably some of the very ambitious and passionate resolutions have already
been forgotten and the old habits are back in town. Nevertheless, ten days ago,
at 24 o’clock, an invisible bridge was connecting us all. As for the undersigned:
new year, same goal. But this time, I promised myself I’ll start the changes
right from the very moment when the good ideas will sprout inside of my head.
Said and done: like a real chess player I was also ‘partying’ in
the night of January 1st by checking some Nimzo. That’s partly because
of the love I have for the game, but the main triggering force was the scheduled
round five on the same day in the Rilton Cup, held in Stockholm between 27th
December 2011 – 6th January 2012.

Starting from Jan. 1st GM Ulf Andersson was on duty, commenting the games
for the grateful public

One could also watch the live games on this giant screen, if coming closer
to the boards was too difficult. And believe me, sometimes it really was, especially
in time trouble.
Before you start raising your eyebrows, questioning the pleasure of playing
chess on a day when any ‘normal’ person is resting after a memorable
party, you should intuitively know that for the rare species of chess players,
there is no better entertainment than a game of chess –- preferably a
won one. What if it’s a big zero we are talking about?! You shouldn’t
worry too much if it happens in Stockholm, in the beautiful event held every
year around the same dates.

Monika Socko playing against her husband Bartosz – at least the point
will remain in the family

Dragan Solak against Tejas Bakre

Grzegorz Gajewski against Axel Smith
The city, the hotel, the tournament hall, the organizers efforts, they all
come together to create a unique and special chess atmosphere. And personally,
it worked well for me. If the start was a bit shaky, after a series of 1-0-1-0-1-0-1
(this looks more like tic-tac-toe than chess results), in round eight I stopped
the negative sequence by drawing my game and winning the last round. Thanks
to this finish, I am back to Holland with a third IM norm in my pocket, which
also contributes to the positive vibes I have for the tournament. Simply put,
it is a wonderful event – no wonder it reached its 41st edition, with
more than 200 players participating in the three different rating groups: Rilton
Cup, Rilton Elo and Rilton Open.

The children of the GMs also enjoyed the tournament: Szymon and Weronika
Socko, Anna Cramling Bellon
The Rilton Cup is the main tournament, open for players with a higher, national
or international, rating than 2200, so you can imagine it was not a piece of
cake. Despite the tough lineup, Aleksandr Shimanov from Russia won the tournament,
unshared, with 7.5 out of 9!
Final standings (after nine rounds)
Rk |
Name |
Ti |
FED |
Rtg |
Pts |
TB1 |
1 |
Shimanov Aleksandr |
GM |
RUS |
2549 |
7.5 |
40.5 |
2 |
Cicak Slavko |
GM |
SWE |
2566 |
6.5 |
36.5 |
3 |
Solak Dragan |
GM |
TUR |
2629 |
6.5 |
34.0 |
4 |
Ivanov Sergey |
GM |
RUS |
2537 |
6.5 |
34.0 |
5 |
Socko Bartosz |
GM |
POL |
2635 |
6.5 |
32.5 |
6 |
Gajewski Grzegorz |
GM |
POL |
2616 |
6.0 |
33.0 |
7 |
Tikkanen Hans |
GM |
SWE |
2586 |
6.0 |
32.5 |
8 |
Brynell Stellan |
GM |
SWE |
2486 |
6.0 |
32.0 |
9 |
L'Ami Erwin |
GM |
NED |
2594 |
6.0 |
31.5 |
10 |
Bakre Tejas |
GM |
IND |
2509 |
6.0 |
31.0 |
11 |
Volkov Sergey |
GM |
RUS |
2626 |
6.0 |
30.5 |
12 |
Sipilä Vilka |
FM |
FIN |
2316 |
6.0 |
30.0 |
13 |
Nithander Victor |
IM |
SWE |
2423 |
6.0 |
29.0 |
14 |
Karlsson Lars |
GM |
SWE |
2485 |
6.0 |
28.0 |
15 |
Rozentalis Eduardas |
GM |
LTU |
2586 |
5.5 |
33.0 |
16 |
Smith Axel |
IM |
SWE |
2480 |
5.5 |
31.5 |
17 |
Lindberg Bengt |
IM |
SWE |
2415 |
5.5 |
30.0 |
18 |
Socko Monica |
GM |
POL |
2479 |
5.5 |
27.0 |
19 |
Nielsen Fries Jens Ove |
IM |
DEN |
2387 |
5.5 |
25.5 |
20 |
Berczes David |
GM |
HUN |
2555 |
5.0 |
29.0 |
21 |
Bellon Juan |
GM |
ESP |
2419 |
5.0 |
28.5 |
22 |
Denisov Ivan |
|
RUS |
2348 |
5.0 |
28.0 |
23 |
Johansson Linus |
|
SWE |
2197 |
5.0 |
28.0 |
24 |
Åkesson Ralf |
GM |
SWE |
2421 |
5.0 |
27.5 |
25 |
Semcesen Daniel |
IM |
SWE |
2490 |
5.0 |
27.5 |
26 |
Sagit Rauan |
FM |
SWE |
2368 |
5.0 |
26.0 |
27 |
Furhoff Johan |
IM |
SWE |
2370 |
5.0 |
22.5 |
28 |
Codenotti Marco |
FM |
ITA |
2293 |
5.0 |
21.5 |
29 |
Rasmussen Allan Stig |
GM |
DEN |
2541 |
5.0 |
21.0 |
30 |
Blomqvist Erik |
IM |
SWE |
2477 |
5.0 |
20.5 |
31 |
Pettersson Anders |
|
SWE |
2207 |
5.0 |
18.0 |
The winner, with 7.5/9 points: Russian GM Aleksandr Shimanov
But Shimanov's victory was not as smooth and easy as some might imagine. On
the contrary, to the public’s delight, tension and drama were part of
the whole picture. There was the critical round six, when Aleksandr was playing
with black on board one against… Erwin l’Ami, my husband. I was
happily watching the game online up to the point when I almost fell from my
chair: from a completely winning position, after a long and beautiful game,
in the sixth hour of playing – there came the blunder: Erwin missed the
mating threat devilishly set by his opponent and went into losing the game.

[Event "XLI Rilton Cup 2011-12"] [Site "Stockholm SWE"] [Date "2012.01.02"]
[Round "6.1"] [White "L'Ami, Erwin"] [Black "Shimanov, Aleksandr"] [Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E92"] [WhiteElo "2594"] [BlackElo "2549"] [PlyCount "158"] [EventDate
"2011.12.27"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 O-O 5. Nf3 d6 6. Be2 e5 7.
Be3 Ng4 8. Bg5 f6 9. Bh4 Nc6 10. d5 Ne7 11. Nd2 Nh6 12. f3 c5 13. Rb1 g5 14.
Bf2 f5 15. Nf1 g4 16. Ng3 gxf3 17. Bxf3 Ng4 18. Nxf5 Nxf2 19. Nxe7+ Qxe7 20.
Kxf2 Bg4 21. Ke2 Qg5 22. Kd3 Bxf3 23. gxf3 Qg2 24. Rf1 Qxh2 25. Qe2 Qh3 26.
Rf2 Rf6 27. Rbf1 Raf8 28. Kc2 a6 29. Nd1 Bh6 30. Rh2 Qd7 31. Rfh1 Bf4 32. Qg2+
Kh8 33. Rxh7+ Qxh7 34. Rxh7+ Kxh7 35. Nf2 Rh6 36. Ng4 Rh4 37. a3 Kh8 38. b4
b6 39. Kb3 Bc1 40. bxc5 bxc5 41. Ka4 Rh7 42. Ka5 Rb8 43. Nf6 Rh6 44. Nd7 Rg8
45. Qa2 Bg5 46. Qb2 Rh7 47. Nb8 Bd8+ 48. Ka4 Bg5 49. Qb6 Rh6 50. Nd7 Rd8 51.
Qc6 Bd2 52. Nb6 Rh3 53. Qc7 Bg5 54. Nc8 Rh7 55. Qc6 Rf7 56. Nxd6 Rf6 57. Qxc5
Rfxd6 58. Qg1 Bf6 59. c5 R6d7 60. c6 Rc7 61. Qc5 Be7 62. Qc3 Bd6 63. Qc1 Rh7
64. Qg5 Rf8 65. Qg6 Bc5 { Erwin chose to play} 66. Qe6 $2 ({instead of} 66.
d6 {and White should promote a queen or win a lot of material and the game.})
{which allowed Black to play} 66... Rxf3 {Rxf3 and threaten a fatal mate on
a3.} {The game continued with} 67. Qxe5+ Kg8 {Probably shocked by his last move
and under time pressure, White gave the wrong check} 68. Qe8+ $4 {allowing the
Black king to run, hide and eventually win the battle.} ({White was not yet
lost, white can still make a draw by a perpetual check:} 68. Qe6+ Kf8 69. Qc8+
Kf7 70. Qe6+ {and the Black king cannot really escape, while the rook on f3
is also vulnerable.}) 68... Kg7 69. Qe5+ Kg8 70. Qe8+ Kg7 71. Qe5+ Kg6 72. Qe6+
Kg5 73. Qg8+ Kf4 74. Qb8+ Kxe4 75. Qb1+ Ke5 76. Qb8+ Kxd5 77. Qg8+ Rhf7 78.
Qg5+ Kxc6 79. Qg6+ Kc7 0-1
Not a happy moment for our family, but tiredness is and will always be a part
of the game, not to mention the winner’s luck, which everybody needs it
to finish in first position. Of course, most important of all, Aleksandr showed
his class in the upcoming games, and convincingly won the competition.
We also had the pleasure to listen Aleksandr's hidden talent: singing! The
end of the closing ceremony took an informal character and we could all enjoy
a beautiful song, sang by none other than the winner himself, during the previous
edition of the same Rilton Cup! It was a lovely moment and Aleksandr has nothing
to be embarrassed of.

Stockholm is a fantastic place to explore and I can tell you that you’ll
want to come back, in all seasons if possible. For us it was rather warm this
winter, no snow and no minus 20 degrees but with the common short Nordic days,
when darkness is taking over around 15 o’clock!

Settled on 14 islands (I will go even further by naming them "treasure
islands"), Stockholm struck me with its spider infrastructure web, with
its trains, buses, trams, bridges of all shapes and sizes, connecting the water
and the land in just one single universe. I was never sure if I was going from
one island to the other, I had no clue where the sea starts and where it ends,
and the canals… they are real watery avenues, with the huge number of
boats and ships.

And yet, Stockholm was declared the green EU capital in 2010! I perfectly understand
that if I think about the repetitive words visible everywhere: environmentally
friendly, eco, bio, organic, green, etc. If for many countries this is still
a goal to be accomplished, in Sweden it’s a way of life, a greener one.
And quite expensive if you ask me.

The old town, Gamla Stan, is a compact maze of narrow streets,
apperently built for thin people with sturdy ankles!
In short about Sweden’s capital: besides ABBA and IKEA, in Stockholm
the taxi drivers open the door for you (of course, for 60 Euro who wouldn’t).
People are rather tall – sometimes I felt like Gulliver in the giants’
world. Everything is clean and the streets are narrow; a lot of Arabs and Asians;
everybody speaks English (which is great); the cars allow you to cross the street
even if it’s red (and they don’t even use the horn!); people are
direct and positive (at least from my experience); but I wanted to speak about
something else, because all of that you can easily find in a guide book.

The City Hall, unfortunately closed for tours during our free day, on the
December 31st
History, traditions, architecture, this is what belongs to every nation, the
unique thing which makes a difference and stands the country out of the crowd.
People don’t go to Stockholm for Adidas or Macdonalds – you can
find that anywhere. What was I looking for, when I went out? Something new.
Their architecture is amazing! I didn’t know what I should shoot, everything
is so different, so original, so old, so neat – this is the Sweden's capital,
the way I experienced it, during the ten days of the Rilton Cup.





The last travelling bit is to show you that chess can offer such a wide palette
of emotions, related or not to the game itself. And, as I was oftenly re-assured,
Stockholm can be even nicer during summer time. You can see for yourself in
June, when the Stockholm Chess Federation will organize another chess event,
to commemorate 100 years since the Olympic Games were held in 1912, in the same
city you could see in all the above pictures.
Have a fantastic 2012 and see you in the next tournament!
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